


Nothing Like You

by missaliss



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Childhood Friends, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Help, One Shot, One Shot Collection, basically just stuff I want canon, idek, im trash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-07 17:17:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12237255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missaliss/pseuds/missaliss
Summary: A collection of one-shots focusing on different characters and relationships that I believe have the potential to be explored more, focused around the themes of loss and love. No real order, so feel free to pick and choose.





	Nothing Like You

**Author's Note:**

> This is a short Lapis and Peridot interaction, set after Alone at Sea. It can be read platonically or romantically! I will continue writing one-shots, and will probably do either a Connie-centric one or a Pearl-centric one next.

Lapis would be lying if she said she didn’t envy Peridot. Sure, the gem was small. And brash. And annoying. But she was happy. Lapis watched as the Crystal Gems came and went, hopeful, purposeful, and her interrogator, the one bound to the same sort of life she herself used to know until only a month ago, amongst them. Ready to forgive. Ready to learn. She had made mistakes, but she knew how to fix them.

She was ready to move on.

Lapis would be lying if she said she was okay. Smiles for Steven, cordial indifference for the rest of the Crystal Gems, but always deserts and confusion behind the worn wood paneling of the barn walls. Peridot was concerned, she could tell, but why did she have to try so fucking hard? It would be so much easier if Lapis could just stay mad at her.

_You’ve changed me_

Malachite. She could never escape. Every time she let her guard down, something, someone would remind her of what she’d done. She’d destroyed Jasper. Ruined her. Ruined herself. She hated it, she loved it. They didn’t know, none of them comprehended what she’d done, who she’d been -

_I’m the only one who can handle your kind of power._

Peridot knew. Steven must have told her. Lapis could tell. The second season of Camp Pining Hearts was humming gently in the background. Her hesitation, her gentle words. The way she sat atop the silo underneath the cold wind and clear night sky - close enough and far enough at the same time. She was so good.

And, well Lapis would be lying if she said -

Peridot had asked her why she was afraid. In the middle of the ocean, she was the most powerful being alive. How could she explain? How could she describe that dread, the way it drained every ounce of power from her body. The way water turned into chains.

_I- I can’t -_

_Ok. You don’t have to._

And so they sat.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment and leave opinions/recommendations for future one shots! Thanks!


End file.
